What is an American?

     When we think of an American nowadays, a true American, not just a stereotypical one, you think of a person that's hardworking, loyal to their family and their country, and that's earned all that they own in life. This is of course not the case the majority of the time but this is what we like to think of when we think of what an American is. When we want to identify what a group is like, we can look at the two ends of the spectrum and we can look at the average person. We can look at an alcoholic whose sense of loyalty to their family has faded or a slob who is lazy and not hardworking in the least or a snob who has had everything handed to them their entire lives. We can look the perfect American who we might think of as a blond person with blue eyes who is hardworking and patriotic but who also live a wonderful and fairly easy life. Or we can be realistic and look at the average person, which is really the best way to label someone as an American or a member of any other nationality. The average American really is hard working and loyal to somebody. It may not be their family or their spouse but most of us are loyal to someone. The average American has earned what they have in their lives. Their possessions were earned through hours of labor; they weren’t just given to them. The average American is proud to be an American. It is a title that they carry with pride and when they look at the current events of the world, they think “hmm, good thing I’m safe and sound here in America.” The average American feels cared for to some extent. They may not receive aid or work for the government or be connected to the government in that way, but they still feel cared for. We don’t worry about a nation attacking us or taking over our city today because we know our country is more than capable of handling itself. We trust that the government will take care of our basic safeties. The average American is well aware of their basic rights such as the right of speech, of press, of assembly, and of religion, and aren’t afraid to fully utilize those rights. These characteristics are just a few of the true American because, to me, being an American isn’t just about following suit to the template of the ideal American, being an American is doing what you would normally do anyway and just happening to find out that millions upon millions of other people are just like you. That’s what being an American is to me. (I was sick with pneumonia all of last week so that's why this blog entry is so late.)